Wiigin’ Out: Saturday Night Live’s Kristen Wiig is “using her own money†to option Clown Girl, a 2007 novel by Monica Drake. Wiig will adapt the book for the big screen and play the leading role of Nita, a “clown in crisis†who works under the name Sniffles the Clown. She’s hopelessly in love with a man who used her to finance his clown-college tuition and she struggles to resist … the “potentially lucrative†clown fetishist prostitution trade. So another one of these indie clown-fetishist movies, huh? [Deadline]
Need for Speed: Deadline is reporting that Dwayne Johnson, a.k.a. the Rock, is “eying a starring role†in Fast & Furious 5. Vin Diesel and Paul Walker are onboard as fugitives on the run in the film, and the Rock would play a character on the “right side of the law.†So if you’re one of those people always griping about how this franchise just doesn’t have enough testosterone, you should be pleased. [Deadline]
Steel and Four for Keamy: Kevin Durand has been cast in the role of the villain in the upcoming alien flick I Am Number Four and is also in talks to join Hugh Jackman in Real Steel. It would seem that Durand, best known for his role as Lost’s Keamy, could very well be finding himself on next year’s iteration of the villains flow chart. [Variety]
Christopher Goes Horror: The Sopranos’ Michael Imperioli will play the leading role in Richard Ledes’s horror film Foreclosure, which takes place in a bleak neighborhood and unravels amid the “real-life context of the mortgage crisis where so many homes are bank-owned.†Sounds like some fun escapist fare! [HR]
Antony and the Surprisingly Long Book: Antony and the Johnsons will be following up 2009’s The Crying Light with new album Swanlights, due October 6 in the U.S. A special edition of the album accompanied by a 144-page (!) book — featuring paintings, collages, photography, and writing — will also be available, for those of you who are Antony completists. [Pitchfork]
Raving: Lifetime has given the green light to Bond of Silence, an original movie that will star Kim Raver (Lipstick Jungle, Grey’s Anatomy). Inspired by a true story (of course), Silence will follow a widow who looks into the death of her husband, who was â€mysteriously†murdered while trying to stop a “wild†teenage New Year’s Eve house party. Teens everywhere will undoubtedly be surreptitiously deleting this from their parents’ DVRs before they get a chance to watch it. [Deadline]